Easton
XC One SS 29 Disc
Wheelset

Product Description

Up or down, single speed riding takes a toll on equipment. Fortunately Easton designed the XC One SS 29'er wheels to tolerate the extreme torque and sharp hits single speed riders throw at their rigs. At the center of the XC One SS is the purpose-built Ea

User Reviews

Submitted by
john9iner
a Cross Country Rider
from Colorado Springs, CO USA

Date Reviewed: September 6, 2010

Strengths: Well crafted, great looking wheelset, everything is blacked out with red and white decals. Super light weight of 1695g. USA MADE bearings.

You can feel the lightness of the wheels, I can get to speed quickly. I went up from 1.9 tires to 2.3 tubeless, because of the XC-One lightness, its about the same weight with greater traction and suspension.

Weaknesses: The month after my warranty expired my rear wheel started creaking, grab the wheel and rock the wheel side to side, there was play with a clunking sound, a local bike shop made proper adjustments they are an Easton dealer, within two weeks the same side to side play and now the creaking noise is constant, its obvious the rear bearings are shot, the bike shop ordered a new set of bearings a month and a half ago, I am still waiting for bearings! I emailed Easton twice asking if they sell bearing kits, what online dealers sells the bearings, what are the bearing model numbers for cross reference, and what are the cost of repair and shipping.... I have yet to receive an email back. I looked on the internet for replacement bearings, no one sells these bearings, we have a bearing distributer in town, I may ask them, but the last time I visited them, the price for sealed bearings were $25-35 a piece! I believe the rear hub uses 4 bearings. I finally found a source on the internet ordered a bearing kit from Chain Reaction out of England, yup England, Easton replacement USA MADE bearing kit overseas. These bearings are somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, its been 2 weeks.

These Easton XC-One Wheelset do flex some in cornering, sometimes it feels like your tire just rolled off the rim! However, because of the flexiness these wheels take the edge off of bumps.

Also, in hard cornering my front rotors scrape the brake pads in the caliper, I have never experienced this until now, these are the same brakes I have used on three bikes, its very annoying hearing the scrap and "ching" sound. Others have said the same thing due to the flexiness.

Bottom Line:

I do own other Easton products, I have the super light Easton EC90 SLX3 road handlebars and Easton EC90 SL road fork, these products are sick. Thats why I purchased the XC-One wheelset.

My concern is availability of wheel bearings now, just think two or three years from now when the product may be discontinued, will I be able to get bearings?

I am also concerned not hearing from Easton using there website "contact us" button.

I have been searching forums and have found similar issues with the wheelset not being reliable because of bearing failure and poor contact from Easton.

I have 7000 miles on a set of Mavic wheels and 2000 miles on a DT-340 wheelset with no bearing failure.

When I get the bearing kit, I will have the XC-One rear hub fixed and I will sell the wheelset, this whole mess may be unique to a small number of unlucky folks like me, but YOU should really read more about these wheels before spending your hard earned cash..... and also the unexpected down time of not riding, my Titus has been sitting for almost 2 months, fortunately I have my Litespeed Obed 29er and Litespeed Ghisallo road bike!